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Question

Posted by: Zee | 2009-12-08

Q.

One year old' s loss of appetite

Hi My one year old baby girl is refusing food at this stage (since last week Friday). She just slams her mouth shut and refuses to eat. She is not a fussy eater although she has her favourites and it seems as if it is just a serious lack of appetite. Fortunately, she is still drinking well and there is no outwardly sign that there is anything wrong. She is still very busy and playful ... Should I be concerned?

Expert's Reply

A.

It is unusual for a baby to suddenly stop eating like this but as she seems to be well and is drinking well. There does not appear to be a serious problem.She may be teething especially getting her molar teeth which is usually rather uncomfortable.Try giving her only soft well mashed food and especially her favourite foods. She may be prepared to try to eat some of these foods especially if they are soft and mushy.

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user comments

C.

Posted by: Zee | 2009-12-08

Posted by: Purple | 2009-12-08

At around a year babies start to need less food, and many moms think baby is getting fussy and refusing to eat. Just offer healthy food only so that when she does eat it is healthy.

She is also starting to assert herself - telling you she will eat when she is hungry and not when you think its time to eat.What I did at this age was to put a plate of pieces of fruit and cheese on our lounge table so my son could nibble when he wanted to. I would top it up during the day and add bits of minced chicken and so on. My son was walking at this age and was also eating our food rather than mashed or pureed food, so he just used to help himself with his fingers.

Now that he' s nearly 6 he sits at the table with us and uses a knife and fork and is quite willing to at least have a bite of most things put on his plate.

Don' t make food an issue, just offer healthy options and some will go in.

Just as you get used to that, she' ll go through a growth spurt and eat you out of house and home for about a week and as you adapt to that, she' ll shut her mouth to all food again.

Don' t let her fill up on juices and milk. Offer cooled boiled water to drink throughout the day, and while she is eating offer watered down fruit juice. If she' s breastfeeding, she' ll have little sips as she needs during the day, if she is on bottles, offer them when you usually would, I didn' t bottle feed, so I' m not quite sure how you go about doing that.

You might like to buy the book toddler taming, it is full of practical, sensible advice that really works and helps you to understand that pretty much everything that drives you wild about your toddler is quite normal behaviour. My copy is so well thumbed that the pages are starting to fall out.

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